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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. My father caught me by the ________________.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. bat — the animal
  3. arm — a part of something
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. branch — a division
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. game — a match
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. cell — a phone
  12. prune — to trim
  13. cell — in biology
  14. game — wild animals
  15. hand — in cards
  16. field — farmland
  17. field — for sport
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. arm — part of the body
  20. field — a subject
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. prune — to trim
  24. hand — help

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com